A pixelated Liquid Crystal etalon with application to spectral imaging

This initiative designs and fabricates an etched multiple-element liquid crystal Fabry-Perot that behaves as several independent liquid crystal Fabry-Perot etalons simultaneously. This is a robust, solid state device which will be the core component for two twin-etalon system delivered in Phase II. The first system is a 100-channel ultra-high spectral resolution filter operating at 1064 nm as a lidar receiver that uses the double-edge technique to make Doppler wind measurements. The second is a 100-channel visible broad band electrically-tunable spectral imager operating from 400 to 700 nm. The twin-etalon systems to be supplied in Phase II are contingent upon the successful design and fabrication in Phase I of a single, 4-channel high spectral resolution liquid crystal etalon with 5 cm gap spacing and upon fabrication of a 1064 nm reflective dielectric coating. This project innovates by partitioning through etching the transparent conductive layer used to control the index of refraction of the liquid crystal to create multiple etalons that can each be independently tuned onto a single substrate. The resulting filter features electronic tunability, simultaneous frequency sampling capability, vibration and radiation insensitivity, high throughput, and light weight design that are unmatched by any other current technology in a single unit.